Accused
I have a funny feeling that this story about CNN executive Eason Jordan is going to become a very big thing. You've heard about this wretched turd, right? He's accused the US military of "targeting" journalists for death in Iraq ---and without any evidence of it.

Lots of the best bloggers out there are on this dope, but here's something from Captain Ed that you should read:

Why, one might ask, would the executive of an American news organization do this? Mainly because CNN does not compete well within the US any longer, and for good reason, as we now know. They are, however, tremendously influential internationally; they are America's BBC, in more ways than market share. In order to maintain that position, Jordan has to cultivate an image of CNN as a hypercritical gadfly to American policies, especially those of American conservatives.

I think this sums up the motivation for such slanders pretty well, but Jordan must have begun with that attitude. Remember, this is the same prick who said that CNN had sat on stories of atrocities coming out of pre-war Iraq to maintain his access to the Saddamites.

Wow. What a principled guy.

Good Stuff
I thought the President did a great job with his State of the Union address last night. The presentation of the honored guests, of course, was extraordinarily moving. Even my Momma got verklempt. That is to say, of course she got verklempt ---despite her dislike of this President.

I wish there had been more purple-tipped fingers in the audience, but I was glad to see those that were. Some had said that such a display would be somehow inappropriate or shallow or whatever ---but I strongly disagree. If there is anything I can say I know about the Arab mind, it is their appreciation for the symbolic gesture. They are far more attuned to that sort of thing than most of us unsentimental, asymbological Occidentals. They are surely in favor of what they saw last night.

As for the domestic side of the address, Bush has not only touched the third rail of American politics, but he is actively shorting out the whole grid. And still standing. I do not pretend to understand the numbers on Social Security, but Bush seems to be wide open on a lot of reform options ---options that he very shrewdly noted to the country last night have been proposed by many leading Democrats. Reading the Leftist blogs will acquaint you with the utter desperation of the Dems' opposition to meaningful SS reform ---and I am unsure of why. Is it really just a partisan thing? They need to come to the table with some real willingness to make the system work well into the future. As it is, I suspect they simply don't want to have to anger the baby boomers.

Anyway, George W. Bush held the floor last night to great effect. He owned the hour and I am pleased with his resolve.

Mousy
K.J. Lopez over at The Corner notes a piece of a conversation Don Imus had with Chris Matthews this morning about how similar is the timbre of Harry Reid's voice to that of his predecessor, Tom Daschle. It's a curious thing to notice, but listen to Loudmouth:

But these guys are not Lyndon Johnson, Sam Rayburn, or Tip O'Neill. Tip O'Neill hated whispers, couldn't stand them. I worked with him for six years, he couldn't stand people that came around with their soft little precious voices. He wanted you to thunder out what you believed and what you cared about, and that kind of democrat whether it's Hubert Humphrey, or it's Jack Kennedy or Johnson or Tip, where are they? I mean you knew where they stood because they told you.

Right. Who would've guessed that Chris Matthews would come out in favor of roaring and spluttering one's opinions?

Let Your Freak Flag Fly
It's looking more and more likely that Howard Dean will become the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

As I've been telling the moonbats I visit from time to time, this is certainly the way to go. Have some principles, I say. Even if you wind up putting an insane clown's face on the head of your party, at least the kids will respect you for it. You know, these youngsters got kicked in the stomach when the power brokers in the party decided to go with Lurch ---and they've been aching ever since.

Trouble at Black Rock
Now Playing: "We're Gonna Groove" by Led Zeppelin
Here's an interesting story at NewsMax.com about what's going on behind the scenes at CBS News. I especially like this bit:

Resentment at CBS was also running high over the conduct of Rather himself. Insiders knew that "he'd read multiple drafts of the script for the story [written by producer Mapes], done most of the interviews, and had a thorough knowledge of the story's content and point of view," notes Blum, contradicting network spin that the notorious anchorman was out of the loop.

That's exactly how it's been going down, too: this stupid idea that Dan Rather isn't responsible for that hit piece because he had just been covering a hurricane or a convention or whatever other nonsense they're using to excuse him.

Here's to hoping it gets good and ugly with these terminations. Lots of recriminations and juicy, gossipy goodness for the other networks to spread around.

Hmm. Maybe a network like FOX! You know, they are the focus of evil in the modern world.

Kerry's Admission to Treason
I guess I didn't hear all of John Kerry's conversation with Tim Russert this past Sunday, but Tom Maguire did. Did you happen to catch this (boldface added)?

MR. RUSSERT: And you have a hat that the CIA agent gave you?

SEN. KERRY: I still have the hat that he gave me, and I hope the guy would come out of the woodwork and say, "I'm the guy who went up with John Kerry. We delivered weapons to the Khmer Rouge on the coastline of Cambodia." We went out of Ha Tien, which is right in Vietnam. We went north up into the border. And I have some photographs of that, and that's what we did. So, you know, the two were jumbled together, but we were on the Cambodian border on Christmas Eve, absolutely.

What the hell is he talking about? As Maguire notes:

Running guns to the Khmer Rouge? Uhh, Tall Dour One, they were on the other side.

Heh, heh. "Now they tell me!"

Moreover, you can tell Kerry's lying his ass off because of his ridiculous use of prepositions. "Into" the border between Cambodia and Viet Nam? There's no such thing. You're either over the border or not.

Two words for you, Senator: Form 180.

On the Spiritual Significance of Groundhog Day (1993)
Courtesy of Jonah Goldberg over at The Corner at NRO, here's an essay by Michael P. Foley on the signficance of the 1993 romantic comedy Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray and the delicious Andie MacDowell. I like how I was actually ahead of the curve on appreciating the genius of this movie because a lot of people are only now starting to get it, too.

Why Are Cox & Forkum Not In My Local Rag?

These guys are really gifted editorial cartoonists and bloggers ---and terribly underappreciated. Be sure to visit their site through my blogroll.

Just Keep Going
Mood:  chatty
When you get to the bottom of this page, be sure to click on the "Older" link there to take you back to yesterday's entries. I've been writing a lot here lately ---and I wouldn't want you to miss any of my brilliant analyses or potty mouth.

Unlike the Viet Cong
I just heard Pat Buchanan make a great point to Loudmouth Matthews that a lot of people need to understand:

"The insurgents don't have a program, unlike the Viet Cong."

That's right. That's another major reason why this War for Iraq isn't the Viet Nam War.

What program do these subhuman sacks of shit have? Murdering schoolchildren and jobseekers and housewives? Yeah. That's not a political cause: that's psychopathy. Or is there some major groundswell of support for this Islamofascist horseshit in Iraq I haven't heard of? These "insurgents" ---or "Minutemen," as the treasonous wad of dog shit Michael Moore calls them--- aren't summarily executing election workers in the middle of busy streets because they're upset over tarriff policy; they're doing so because they are MURDERERS.

Fuck the Saddamites. Fuck the al-Qaedists. Fuck the Iranian and Syrian interlopers. And fuck a Democrat who won't say today ---of all days--- that the exercise of one's right to vote is a good thing.

Rhododactylos Eos ---Sorta
Go look at this guy's website before his bandwidth gets blown. His name is Ryan and he's an American advisor in Baghdad.

Lots of great pictures you won't see anywhere else.

Indelible

Photo borrowed from the Power Line.

Kim Deal's Voice
Mood:  amorous
Is there any sound sexier than Kim Deal's voice? It's got this honeyed, smokey, baby-talk quality that simply does it for me.

It's incredible to consider that I saw the Pixies for the first time at the Texas Ballroom on the UT campus ---fifteen years ago! Good Christ! As I recall, it was my mission that night to go and buy beer at the concession stand for my friends. None of us were yet 21, but I gave it my best try. Amazingly, however, that old trick had been tried unsuccessfully before ---and worked about as well when I went to pull it. So I had to simply drink my ill-gotten beer from behind a line as I waved at my friends. I doubt they cared ---cranky though they were.

I don't recall much about that show, but the one I saw last night on ACL was really fantastic. They did many of the most familiar songs, but also did a very short and charming song from David Lynch's excessively disturbing film Eraserhead called "In Heaven". I knew I had heard it before, but didn't know where to place it. Maybe they covered it on one of their albums? Anyway, it was an all-too-brief moment with Kim's marvelously sultry voice ---and I enjoyed it. They also performed a very subdued and delicate version of "Wave of Mutilation" and my all-time Pixies favorite "Where Is My Mind?" The encore was an okay version of "Caribou".

There are some excellent photos of her and the rest of the Pixies from a show in Massachusetts late last year at this guy's website. Check it out.

If I ever strike it rich, I'm going to hire Kim Deal to record me a personal disc of lullabys. Beautiful.

Drowned Out
Courtesy of Little Green Footballs (where Charles Johnson says, "Please remind me never to get on Iowahawk's bad side") comes this jalape?o-and-fiberglass enema ---delivered by said Iowahawk--- for the loathsome senior US Senator from Massachusetts.

I'll get you started with the Senator's opening remarks:

Like all Americans, I had high hopes for the future of the Oldsmobile and its passengers, as we struggle against the onrushing water and its poorly-designed shoulder belts. But as claustrophobia sets in we must begin to sober up and face the truth: hope is no longer an option.

It is time for us to recognize that our continued presence in this volatile region is a hinderance to the Oldsmobile and its people. Rather than helping the situation we are further weighing down the Oldsmobile, causing it to sink faster and faster into the quagmire of Chappaquidick Bay, creating a dangerous situation for both ourselves as well as its passengers who are desperately seeking an air pocket in which to start a better life.

That is why I believe we have reached the point where we must take a deep breath and immediately depart the Oldsmobile. We must seek through the watery darkness and release the belt latch of madness that has kept us here, and reach out for a sane and honorable window crank.

As Michael King says, "Just damn."

No More Charlie Brown
Looks like Balloon Juice has a similar impression to mine of John Kerry on Meet the Press this morning. These anti-Bush ninnies are always moving the goalposts it seems:

John Kerry, btw, was on Meet The Press this morning, and did everything he could to piss all over the administration and the election. According to him, we need to have a massive outreach to the international community in order to make sure the election is viewed as legitimate. And the Democrats wonder why they are the minority party. "This is the last chance for the President to get it right." Go fuck yourself.

I am so sick and tired of playing Charlie Brown to their Lucy.

I sometimes wonder if the anti-war "leadership" in this country is not simply playing to type. Like they're obligated, for the sake of some Inconceivably Grand Dog-and-Pony Show, to spout pessimistic nonsense to appear engaged in a contrary position.

Today should be, as the kids say, a "no-brainer." Go with the moment, dickheads. Just be happy that millions and millions of Iraqi citizens braved death to go and vote. The Democrats weren't lobbing mortar rounds at me back in November when I went to vote.

This is historical. Remember that.

Lovefest
Mood:  happy
Man! Even CNN is just lovin' all over this election. Words of humbled awe and honor simply to be in the presence of these voters. Anderson Cooper, you got a fever, boy? Jane? Christiane? Y'all feelin' alright?

What a Dreary Fuck
Now Playing: "Il vecchio castello" from Mussorgsky's Bilder einer Ausstellung
I'm watching snippets of John Kerry's appearance on Meet the Press from this morning ---and it's truly shocking what a dreary fuck he is. So dreary a fuck, in fact, that it robs me of my small ability to sympathize with him at a personal level for the great loss he suffered by losing the election.

No straight answers. Not one doffing of his hat to George W. Bush. A constant need to remind people that he did support such and such ---which unconsciously communicates to the listener that there may be some reason to suppose that he didn't support such and such.

Don't ask this guy about Iraq. He doesn't know dick about Iraq. I don't care what he thinks about the legitimacy of today's elections there or what he thinks our troops or diplomats or anyone else should be doing.

Can you imagine being represented in the United States Senate by him and Turd Kennedy? It staggers the mind. Was there ever a more perfect pair of irrelevant whiners in the history of this republic?

The End of a Logical Fallacy
Whenever I go looking for an exchange with my ideological opponents, I often run into a logical fallacy that I would like to kill right here and now.

Just as an anti-war Leftist is finally running out of nonsense to spout, he will tell me that no one who hasn't served his country in uniform has any right to speak out in favor of war. Got that? If you've never been in combat, you somehow have no right to advocate violence that you yourself cannot or will not participate in.

Why do these people believe that?

It's true: I've never served my country in uniform or seen combat. But I know as a student of History that the use of military power has changed the course of human events throughout the millennia ---and very often for the better. How does my lack of military experience invalidate that knowledge? It remains objectively true that the United States military has used its power to liberate our friends and to crush those who have done us harm. Is it possible that anyone ---veteran or not--- could fail to find, for example, the cause to end Nazism or Japanese imperialism justifiable and worth advocating?

One may as well ask on what basis a person who opposes this war for Iraq does so. Even one who has served in the military. Why should a an American veteran oppose the removal of a tyrant and a regime that oppressed its people with death and destruction for decades? Because we do not remove all such dictators and murderers? Well, that's just sophistry in the face of impracticality. Saddam was a sworn enemy of our country. Why wouldn't a responsible American citizen advocate his defeat? And how else but through the application of our military power could that have been accomplished?

This belief that you aren't allowed to support a war you're not fighting in would never apply to other aspects of our social and political lives ---so why do dumbasses make the argument?

Men cannot conceive and bear children ---and yet it's ridiculous to suppose that they have no right to advocate a position on abortion or child-rearing or anything else.

People complain all the time about the actions of politicians and cops and teachers without ever being in those same positions. Why should such complaints matter if the one making them isn't serving in those roles?

The average citizen makes judgements about every aspect of public life because it is his natural obligation as a citizen ---as Plato might have said. If he is true to that obligation, he will be informed about what he passes judgement on. He cannot necessarily be experienced in every one of these aspects, but he can be reasonable in assessing them and taking a position on them. And that's because the actions of soldiers, politicians, cops, and teachers affect us all. We each have our stations in life and in wider society that affects everyone around us. Thus, you must be informed if you are going to participate. That, it seems to me, is the final criterion.

But there is one last thing to consider about this logical fallacy of the anti-war Left ---less a question of logic as of character. They insist that I, as an advocate of this war for Iraq, should be enlisting and going over to fight. But they say so because they wish that I might be killed or injured. Notice the lack of honor in this suggestion. Not as it involves me but as it does our fighting men and women. These people reacting to me would have you believe that they have our troops' best interests at heart ---and that that's why they are opposed to the war. In reality, these lousy Leftists think so little of our military personnel that they would call for those who oppose them to go and, as they would hope, die. That is to say, to anti-war moonbats, the life of a soldier in Iraq is as meaningless as that of someone whom they hate.

And therein lies the difference between myself and these rectal probes: they dishonor the sacrifices and bravery of our military while I do my best to honor and defend them. I acknowledge that I have not made a personal commitment to the military, but I make our common case in their behalf as honestly and constructively as I can. That is all I can do. As a citizen, it is what I must do.

"If We Get Bored, We'll Move to California"
Now Playing: "Where Is My Mind?" by the Pixies
If you're a Pixies fan and live in Austin, you really need to be watching Austin City Limits right now. They are getting it done in fine fashion.

Election Day Coverage
Be sure to visit the folks at Friends of Democracy sometime today and for the next several days to get information on the elections in Iraq.

They say they're even going to be broadcasting a couple hours' worth of stuff on C-SPAN tomorrow (Sunday) from 1 PM to 3 PM Central Time.

Share in this, my fellow citizens. We have lost many good young men and women for this moment.